ISLAMABAD   -   Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab’s former Director General Muzaffar Ali Ranjha, who has been accused by the PTI chairman of in­volvement in political engineering in the 2013 elections, has said that he considers it below him to re­spond to the allegations of a “com­pulsive liar like Imran Khan”.

Imran Khan, who was ousted from power through a vote of no-confi­dence earlier this year, has accused Brigadier (retd) Muzaffar Ali Ran­jha, former director-general of the Anti-Corruption Establishment, Punjab, of manipulating the 2013 elections in favour of the Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N.

Ranjha was removed from his of­fice by the Punjab interim govern­ment just before the 2018 elections because he was considered a blue-eyed officer of Shehbaz Sharif.

“These are absolutely baseless al­legations from a liar. I consider it below me to respond to such alle­gations,” Ranjha told a private TV channel in an interview. “But since, he has publicly made these allega­tions, I would respond.”

Ranjha offered Imran to agree to formation of a commission which should investigate his allegations. “But before this, we both should sign an affidavit that whosoever is found guilty would be liable to capital pun­ishment,” he added.

“I had first made this offer in May [2018]. At that time when the media asked him about it, then he said, ‘it was my political statement,” he add­ed. “He remained prime minister for four years, but did not raise this is­sue during his rule. Now, he is again raking up this issue. The objective is to make our mother-like institution controversial,” the retired brigadier said while referring to the military.

Asked why Imran is raking up this issue again, Ranjha said: “I believe he has lost his mind after losing power. This man has never been in favour of the armed forces. He only flirted with the military. Now, since the military has detached itself from politics, he is randomly hurling allegations.” He ad­vised the nation to “ignore the wild allegations of a pathological liar like Imran”. He recalled that Imran had given a word to a “very senior offi­cial in the state institutions” in 2018 that he would not repeat his allega­tions as it was a “political statement” and that he did not have any support­ing evidence. “If he [Imran] opens his mouth again, then I would go to a public forum and spill the beans. He should realise that I know everything about him because I have also served as intelligence officer,” said Ranjha. “I’ll take him to court. I’ll take him to other forums because this man has made it a habit to randomly hurl al­legations and then get away with it,” he said, recalling how Imran had lev­elled allegations against Najam Sethi and Mian Shehbaz Sharif. Ranjha fur­ther said that Imran considered him­self a big politician.